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Apocalypse Life/Issue 35
Issue 35 - Better “Just go for the head. Smash it as hard as you can.” A man with short, dark hair and and a medium complexion nervously transfers his look left and right, arms tightly folded. The casual business attire he wore was a bit dirtied, from all the days he’s worn it. It’s quick to assume that, at one glance, this man was of the white collar persuasion. A walker, the only walker on the wide, open ground they stood on, stands a small distance to his left. Its eyes were on a woman, a rusty, medium-sized shovel on her hands. The woman stood to the business man’s right direction. Her hair was made up of numerous, lengthy braids, a mix of black and brown, tied with a black knot to seal it off. Like the man, she, too, wore days old clothing, consisting of a patterened collared shirt, jeans, and boots. The man exchanges a few looks between her and the walker, before tapping his forehead again. “C’mon,” he says. He unfolds his arms and starts clapping, to get her going. “Before it gets too close.” The woman gives him a few fretful looks, and hesitates a few times to continue holding her shovel up. She changes her looks over to that… that thing… what if it just throws the shovel off her hands? What if it just lunges at her and bites her? The man gives her a peering look at first, but upon notcing her nearly comical-yet-distressed appearance, he changes his expression to a smirk. The walker stood way too far for her to be worrying this much. He picked out this walker just for her. Its flesh is all decayed, at least one and a half of its eyes are missing. It was practically blind, and it moved very, very slowly. It was harmless. And yet, she wasn’t noticing that. Maybe it was because of how it was covered in mud, mixing in with all that decay… She just continues to stand there, very close to trembling. She continued to exchange looks between the man and the walker. “Shannon!” someone shouts from behind her. It came from an elderly woman, silver hair salon-styled to the length of her neck, her hands cupped over her mouth. Much like the dark-skinned woman, she wore everyday clothes, with her bright pink pants and white pumps. “C’mon! Been standing here for hours and that thing’s still alive!” She leaned back against a gray surface casually, her arms folded. The woman named Shannon felt a little pressured; she grips the shovel in her hands tightly, and prepares a swing. She turns her head away and closes her eyes tightly. “Shannon!” the man yells. “Don’t close your eyes! It’ll lower your guard!” Shannon opens her eyes and shoots her head toward him, her expression a mix of distress and annoyance. The man nearly chuckles, but he manages to hold it off by covering his mouth. “What?!” Shannon impatiently shouts; before she can scold him for his look of ridicule, she faces the walker yet again and feels like she’s back to where she started. That mucky, ugly mess isn’t even making an effort to get closer to her. What does she have to do to finish this God-forsaken lesson? Be the one to approach it first? Just looking at the thing is a vehement task on its own. “Shannon!” The man folds his arms and looks left and right. “How do you expect to get anything done if you don’t move from that spot?” Yep. He really wants her to approach it. She contemplates it a bit. “If it finishes this damned lesson,” she tells herself. And yet that thing is just so… disgusting, repulsive. She’s seen enough of them in the past month, but for her to actually kill one? Out of the question. She exchanges a few more glances between the man, and the walker. They could be twin brothers for all she cares… She sighs, and restarts everything in her mind again. “Just walk over it…” she tells herself, “… and pry its head open with this thing.” She thinks about it for a moment. Pry its head open… As much as it was a mucky, ugly mess in her eyes, that thing still had four limbs. She could barely see through that pale skin of it, but she can see its yellow teeth clearly. Its eyes… its eyes were buried in all that mud. It was an abomination. It’s not human anymore. She can do this. She decides to step over to it, thinking about her approach… the way she was going to split its forehead wide with this shovel and—and maybe end its suffering once and for all… She stops, and puts her hands down. She can’t see that. She doesn’t want to see all that blood, its insides… This thing, no matter how ugly it is, was still human. She hesitantly looks between the walker and the man beside her, who was eagerly looking at her. She relaxes her stance, and takes a few steps back. “Paul…” She shakes her head, and looks at his expression changing to disappointment. She briefly looks at the shovel in her hands. “I don’t think today’s the… the day.” Shannon throws the shovel at him, and the man named Paul catches it with ease. He pauses, looking at Shannon, then he shifts to the walker. A low-pitch “Boooo!” could be heard from the background. The way it echoed made it obvious that it came from the old woman. Paul drags himself toward the walker, a look of blank let-down in his face. To think, she was finally going to kill her first walker today. Conquer her fear. He picked that particular one out for her, after killing about three others. But no, this isn’t the day. He sighs, then stops face to face with the walker. The way it barely moved was pitiful in Paul’s eyes. He effortlessly swings the shovel onto its head, and causes it to tumble onto the cement. He then ends it with a stab to the head, splitting it in half and spilling murky, dark blood. He turns to look at Shannon, who was watching him from a distance, hand partially covering her mouth. He walks toward her and swings the shovel to one of his hands. “Shannon…” He wraps his arm around her shoulder as he approached her, and together, they walk. “This is like… the umpteenth day. If not today then… when?” “I… don’t know.” Shannon looked blankly toward her. Inside, she was felt relief for some reason. “Just not today.” She shrugs, and tears off to meet the elderly woman. “Sorry Ellen,” she tells her, as she approached. “I know you were expecting a show.” She looks at her with a watered-down smirk. The woman named Ellen just smiles at her. “Hey, least you tried.” She walks over to her and pats her shoulder. “You didn’t really do jack-shit, but... you tried.” Shannon gives her a somewhat unsure look at first, but the way she smiled reminded Shannon of her humor. Ellen turns to look toward Paul, who were watching the two women. “Sorry, Paul!” she says. Paul waves it off, and half-heartedly smiles. “It’s fine.” He watched as the two walk away, vanishing into the non-visible side of the gray surface. There goes another day with no progress. He sighs one more time, and gets ready to dispose of the corpse by walking toward it. He had to drag it all the way to the pile, which pretty much wasn't in this area. “If not today…” He looks at the shovel in his hand, and spins it around a few times. “Then when?” He stood over a bare parking lot, with virtually no cars parked on it. Around its area stood numerous tall trees that nearly covered it. Right in the middle was a colossal, rectangular gray building, with numerous windows lining it. It would only be him out there, with no walkers around, after having been cleared hours ago. Everyone else was either inside, or at a different part of the parking lot. He bends down and was about to reach for the walker’s feet, when he suddenly realizes how muddy his hands will get. Like today, this walker was worthless. He decides to turn around and leave it, probably clean it later when he’s motivated enough. -------- Paul has found himself in one of the building’s numerous rooms, somewhere in the first floor. He unbuttoned his shirt and was looking at a table full of laundry. Shannon was right behind her, folding the few clean ones in a neat pile. The quiet pretty much reflected how the two have been in the past weeks. They don’t talk as often as they should, partly because of the recent events that have unfolded. One of those events was the move to this building, about one and a half weeks ago. Paul intentionally unbuttoned his shirt slowly, waiting for any word in between them to come out. He doesn’t know why it’s such a chore talking about things with Shannon lately. They were husband and wife, for goodness’ sake. He wants to ask her about how today went, but he’s anxious about her one-word response. And so he thinks of another topic. “School…” he thought. His son’s school. But then he remembers he hasn’t even been in school for a month now. Then, he thinks of his son. He’s probably somewhere inside this building, running around like a little mouse again. The thought makes him smile, but only for a second. He was blanking out on anything good to say to Shannon. He was on the second-to-last button when he decides to look at her. He sneaks in a glance by turning behind him. But once he sees her look at him, he quickly looks away and immediately regrets it. What the hell is Shannon going to think? That he can’t even look his wife in the eye anymore? He might end up not hearing the end of this. He decides to face his momentary fear. He turns to look at Shannon, all while finishing his last button. He stands there, waiting for her to face him fully, much like what he’s doing. She just kept looking up and down, from the laundry to his face. As much as things are weird between them right now, Shannon looked as beautiful as he remembered. They were both nearing their fourties, and yet she still looks like the girl he met in college. “Hmmm…” She did start to see her age, though. At least she still looked fit— “What are you looking at?” she suddenly says, prompting Paul to wake up and stop leaning against the table. She just said something. He was too dumbfounded to even reply. She continues to glance at him. “Take off your shirt,” she continues, noting his lack of response. Paul’s look grows from hidden astonishment, to full-on surprise. Is she serious right now? Is she really suggesting this? “Um…” He slowly takes off his buttoned shirt while he observed her emotionless face for any signal. She was serious about this, right? He swivels the shirt to one arm and swings it away onto the ground. He’s only left with his white tank top. He continues to stand there, waiting for any go-aheads in Shannon’s part. Shannon pauses at first, looking at him. She then walks over to the shirt he threw to the ground and picks it up. Halfway toward the clean clothes pile, she realizes it. She stops, and turns to face Paul with a ridiculous look. “So, uh—” “''Really'', Paul? Really?” She continues to look at him ridiculously. Paul’s face retracts to embarrassment. “I—I was just going to wash… this. Is that what…?” There was still some hope left. Paul looks eagerly at Shannon, hoping for her to realize this spontaneous moment. Instead, she sighs, walks past him, and throws the shirt onto the pile like it was nothing. “Come on, Paul. There’s so much to be done,” she says, her back turned towards her. “I suppose you’re gonna throw me your pants now?” She looks down at his black dress pants. “They can use some washing too, right? Or you want the ‘other thing’?” The all-but-familiar sarcasm in her voice made Paul hesitate. Paul just assumes a somewhat dejected look, and relaxes his stance. To think, it was going to happen, at a rare moment like this. “Alright, alright… fine.” He wanted to look unaffected, but Shannon’s piercing look is all-knowing to him. He steps out of the room without a word, dragging himself toward the exit. Paul’s out of his mind. He just killed one of those… walkers today and this is what he wants? Shannon folds the last piece of clothing, slowing down to do some thinking. They’ve witnessed so much death lately that they should all be at edge. Paul’s needs to take this more seriously— She suddenly sees him, peeking his head through the exit. “Shannon, come on,” he pleads. “It’s been ages—” “''No!” she harshly replies. ---- Xavier, Toni, and their three new friends walked toward yet another large parking lot. They were headed for a clothing warehouse this time, and by the looks of it, there were barely any walkers. Julius and Alice have put a little distance between them, mostly so Julius can talk to her. She hasn’t said a word to the two since telling her name to them. She always likes to distance herself from new people like this. “What do you think?” Julius asks her. They were on the other side of the parking lot’s street, just needing to cross the road. Alice maintains her eyes forward, past Marina, who walked in between them and the other pair. The first thing she notes was how tall the man was. She assumes he’s a college professor of some sort, judging from his fancy attire consisting of a leather jacket and glasses. Then the other man, with the suit, makes her a bit wary, but nonetheless, he doesn’t look like he has bad intentions. For now, at least. “Weeell…” They were close to a prospect of having a group, based on what Julius said to her. “They seem like nice people.” Her approval alone is reassurance in Julius’s part. She seemed to look on board with this. “Jen told me how important numbers are,” she continues. “Learned that when we had our own.” Though as much as there were people, she found herself clinging to Jen too much. Julius was here now, so she has somebody at least… They finally reach the grounds of the parking lot, where they overlook the warehouse in its entirety. It shadowed a small portion of the entrance, so it was a bit hard for them to see it. “This is where the girl we been talkin’ about is at,” Xavier says, as he looks onward to the three behind him. “She usually goes inside to scavenge, but…” He looks at Toni. “… think this’ll be the last since she cleaned the place out about a day ago.” Marina looks over at the building a few more times. This was where she saw them, on numerous occasions. She even had thoughts of scavenging this area herself, but she didn’t want to get in the way of these people. “Think she inside…?” Toni asks, his eyes squinting at the entrance. He’s sure he can see some moving figures near it… Xavier looks at him. She was supposed to be out here, waiting for them. She’s supposed to be done by now… The growing seriousness forces Toni to run toward the entrance. “Let’s go!” Xavier says to the rest, and he follows Toni shortly after. Marina, Alice, and Julius run with them to keep up. -------- A girl, wearing a gray jacket with the hood over her head nervously paced the employer’s office, as she thought of any and all possible exits she can take. She looks at the blinds-covered window, and sees them, the walkers, wander aimlessly like they were searching for her. She was worried that her friends might’ve left her behind by now. She was supposed to be standing out in the parking lot, all done for the day… But she had to do that thing differently. She was always able to slip past these walkers, but today was just different. That, and this warehouse somehow got swarmed in the course of a night. She just had to do it today. Had to recover the one and only bicycle in that rack, at the middle of the sales floor. This prompted her to get nearly surrounded, and run for the nearest hiding place. She found this office, and since then, she’s kept herself quiet long enough for the walkers to forget about her. It’s probably been about four hours, and she still continued to pace with full energy. All that taking made her feel like it’s only been thirty minutes. She’s already eaten two of her bars, and drank a bottle of water. At this rate, she might be able to save up her ration for the night… She continues to circle the room with her light step, passing by the back door a few times. The back door, which led to the exit, toward the alley. The alley full of walkers. That’d be her last resort. She looks over at the bicycle she recovered; even with bad lighting like this, she can see its bright yellow tint. It was a mountain bike, and nothing but perfect transportation for her. With this, she can probably do runs much faster. But how is she even going to get out? She thinks about waiting a little bit more, hoping that Toni and Zavier’s gone looking for her. She sits on the one and only computer chair on the room, and leans back against it. She’s been having second thoughts sitting on this chair, thinking that her exhaustion might catch up to her. After all, she hasn’t slept for days, probably more. While everybody else cleared that rental building spot, she had to make sure they had stable supplies, doing runs out here… The one day things go south was when they had to leave her behind. There was particularly no progress today, so the two others had to split up. She was actually planning on making a quick run to that convenience store down the road… The energy bars weren’t kicking in as planned. She just wanted to lay back on the softness of this chair, and nap… As she was very close to dozing off, she hears it. Fast-moving footsteps, squeaking against the linoleum. She shoots up from her seat and nearly makes a ruckus she can’t afford making. She squints through the windows, and sees movement. Lots, and lots of movement… “The hell could she be?” a familiar voice asked; Zavier’s. They stop at that area to fight off the walkers. Perfect time for her to step out. She scurries toward the door, takes out the cabinet blockades, and quickly opens it. The first thing she hears as she exits is Toni grunting, then Zavier’s axe making contact with a walker. She can see them, right behind the counter, fighting those things. There were… three others with them. Three really young people. She decides to learn more about it by showing herself. “Guys!” she calls, running towards the counter. Everyone looks at her. “Ah... she's alive,” Toni says, looking at her briefly before swinging at another walker with his wrench. She doubtfully glances at the three strangers and hops over to the counter. They finally stop fighting as Xavier puts the last walker down. But they were far from over; this area might have been cleared, but there was more a distance away from them. Xavier walks over to the girl, adjusting his glasses a bit. For the most part, she looked the same. He grows a smirk, and offers to shake her hand. She looks at it for a second, then gladly receives it. “Guys…” Xavier walks over to the three, who looked a bit warily at the walkers from the distance. “This is Lina, by the way. The girl we been lookin’ to save.” The three of them look at her. She had long, black hair, almost similar to Marina’s, and wore the hood over her gray jacket. Judging from her outfit and build alone, she was very athletic. “Yeah, uh… they’re marchin’ over here…” Xavier warns, looking around to see more of them emerging from behind the racks and shelves. “Right, uh…” Xavier looks at Lina, then at the door behind her. “Did y’get anything?” “Oh, right…” Lina replies. She quickly vanishes through the door behind the counter and soon appears with a bike, and a backpack with one of its straps on her shoulder. Xavier looked at the bike with a bit of surprise. “A… bike? This what you got yourself in trouble for?” Lina puts the counter’s entrance plank aside and slips through it. Her wordless response makes Xavier realize some things a bit. It ''will help her move around better, after all. Help everyone around. Before he can voice it, Toni interrupts him. “Gotta get the fuck outta here, back where we came. They’re crawlin’ all over the place…” The rest of them look around, taking Toni’s words in. He was right. They might get surrounded soon. ---- Category:Apocalypse Life Category:Apocalypse Life Issues Category:Issues